Visualising War and Peace
How do war stories work? And what do they do to us? Join University of St Andrews historian Alice König and colleagues as they explore how war and peace get presented in art, text, film and music. With the help of expert guests, they unpick conflict stories from all sorts of different periods and places. And they ask how the tales we tell and the pictures we paint of peace and war influence us as individuals and shape the societies we live in.
Visualising War and Peace
Capturing Conflict on Camera with Hugh Kinsella Cunningham
In this week's episode, Alice and Nicolas interview photojournalist Hugh Kinsella Cunningham. Hugh has spent the past two years documenting humanitarian crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He explains some of the logistical challenges which conflict photographers face and how conflict photography has changed in recent decades. Hugh is passionate about making forgotten or unseen conflicts more visible, and he wants the images he produces to raise awareness, engage people and inspire them to lobby for change. That got us talking about how visuals representations of war can encourage people to question and care rather than turn away or switch off. While some conflict photography focuses on armoured vehicles, ruined buildings and victims of violence, Hugh’s work paints a much broader picture, capturing the many ways in which war and other societal experiences overlap.
Among other questions, we asked Hugh:
- what drew him to conflict photography in the first place, and what styles of conflict photography have inspired him in the past
- what media outlets and their viewers want or expect from conflict photography
- why NGOs and aid organisations increasing engage photojournalists to document conflict, and what kinds of images they want to capture
- what Hugh himself is trying to capture and communicate in the creative and sensitive images of conflict that he produces
- what social and political impact conflict photography can have
We hope you enjoy the episode!
For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link. If you would like to see the images discussed in this podcast, you can find bonus material on our project blog. You can also follow Hugh on Instagram and find out more about his work on his website.
For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website.
Music composed by Jonathan Young
Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin